Is it possible for a writer to build her brand without damaging her soul? — Taking the author photo for my debut memoir, Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation, and Non-Monogamy, was an unfortunately vital moment in my career. Thanks to social media, how an author looks — sometimes euphemized as their “brand” — has never held more weight. Even as a cis, white…

25 Practical Tips From a Buddhist Monk — Nearly everyone I talk to feels despair over the state of the world right now. If you’re a person who cares, you likely feel pervasive anxiety about the many, many, many important problems you can’t control or entirely solve. …

An incomplete but hopefully-helpful list of ideas — The reasons why we need to abolish the for-profit prison system are manifold and more complex than I feel qualified to flush out here. To understand why our prison system is inhumane, racist, and needs to be abolished, you need to first educate yourself. …

A quick guide to being a good literary citizen — In a recent article called “12 Publishing Industry Truths Readers & Writers Should Know” I went over the (mostly) hard truths for people trying to write books. But it wasn’t all bad news. …

Visually pleasing, spooky, easy to execute — It’s nearly Halloween, so now’s the time to make things (extra) weird. If you’re throwing a party or simply want to get into the spooky spirit, here are some new vegan Halloween recipes I recommend. …

I read many more, but these were my favorites — There are so many good books out there that it’s hard to know where to start choosing your next read. …

Note I didn’t say “cure” — It feels like another person now, the writer I was a year ago. I was finishing my memoir Open, and I did not experience writer’s block. I woke up most mornings at 5 a.m. just because I was that excited to write. Once I was under contract and deadline, I…

Don’t judge me — Lately, I’ve been moderately depressed. There’s a whole confluence of reasons I won’t get into here. Unsurprisingly, one of the side effects has been binge-watching more TV. I don’t endorse this strategy, because everything in moderation, and my brain is melting — but I also understand why the habit arises…

An interesting peek into what people most want help with — Well, I’ve made it through season 1 of my new podcast Help Existing. Thanks to listener donations to my Venmo @rachel-krantz and other forms of encouragement, I’ve decided to keep going on to season 2. Recently, I took a look at the data on my podcast hosting service Libsyn in…